Christopher Gadsden (1723–1805) was a wealthy merchant and one of the most prominent leaders of the Revolution in the southern colonies. Gadsden was among the founders of the Sons of Liberty in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1765 he served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. Gadsden was later a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as an officer in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1783. In August 1780 Gadsden was captured by the British and held as a prisoner for forty-two weeks before being released in 1781...